


Still up in the air

by Beleriandings



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: Dealing with Consequences, Fluff, Morning After, Silly Arguing, dragon warriors with benefits, hangovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 08:47:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10082078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: Abi wakes up with Shuten beside him. (Odd, he thinks, how that seems to have been happening a lot lately.)





	

Abi awoke to warmth, and a morning turned green.

 _Green_ , he thought vaguely, eyes still closed as his mind floated on the cusp of wakefulness, a peaceful place to be. _A good colour_. One of his favourites, and that was saying something, as Abi could see many more colours than most people could. _It was the colour of summer leaves and pine branches in winter, of bright birds’ feathers or of fine jade. And of course, of…_

 _Wait_. The thought came a moment later, as he drifted a little closer to the waking world. _Green?_

He really could see that colour, he realised; he wasn’t just dreaming. It flooded his mind, in a warm, green light, but also made a lacework of green across his vision; in fact, he realised, there was actually something covering his face, a fine network of something soft.

Abi opened his eyes, even though he didn’t really need to.

 _Hair_ , he realised; that was what was covering his face, he thought in some confusion, brushing it away, blowing the long green locks from out of his mouth so he could breathe properly. He was lying in a bed that was not his own, staring up at a ceiling - above which was the sky in all the full brightness of about midday, he thought - and furthermore he wasn’t alone. _Beside him was_ …

 _Oh_.

Abi drew in a little breath as he turned his head to see Shuten’s sleeping form beside him, one bare arm slung lazily across Abi’s waist. His hair had come loose from its tie, and was flung everywhere in a great green tangle across both of their faces, but Abi could see Shuten’s face well enough, feel the warm, enveloping green light of him in his mind.

Abi frowned a little as his memory struggled to catch up with what he was seeing, trying to remember the night before. Even as he did so, his head ached, and he noticed how dry his mouth felt, a slight nausea making his stomach squirm.

He remembered… they had been drinking, it had been the King’s birthday celebration, a great occasion in the castle. There had been a feast, and there had been music and dancing, and the drink had been flowing for hours. Shuten was teasing him as usual and amid a swirl of warmth and laughter and colours Abi had teased him back, wanting suddenly to stop the words in his mouth and render him speechless, for once in his life, as Shuten so often stole the words from Abi.

(How frequent such feelings had become in his life lately. It was… concerning, Abi thought. To say the least. He almost liked it better when they were fighting side by side every day on the battlefield, or snapping at each other across the castle yard; at least that felt simpler, as uncomplicated as this was supposed to be in theory.)  

It was peacetime now though, and there were celebrations, and the two of them were held in high honour along with Hakuryuu and Ouryuu, for protecting the king in his wars. It had been a happy occasion, and they had danced, amongst a by-now rather uninhibited crowd of courtiers of various sorts, and at some point they had lost track of where the King and Guen and Zeno were. After that Abi couldn’t remember except in patches, but they had slipped away, and then… Abi drew a hand up over his face and groaned inwardly. Yes, then they had somehow ended up in bed, without Abi having much memory of how they had got all the way from the feast hall to Shuten’s rooms on the top floor, which he now recognised. He remembered only biting cold, exhilaration, a blur of stars in the dark sky overhead… Abi grimaced. He certainly _hoped_ Shuten had not flown him all the way across the castle yard and the rooftops of the royal apartments in the state he had surely also been in last night, but he suspected that was exactly what had happened.          

Abi turned his head, provoking another pulse of discomfort in his temples. He glared at Shuten’s sleeping face which was half buried in the pillow by Abi’s neck, and found, to his surprise and slight frustration, that the urge to kill - or at least severely injure - this vexing green creature was dissipating even before it had been fully born.

He looked younger when he slept, Abi thought vaguely, through the fog of mild confusion and embarrassment as tried to piece together the events of last night. Peaceful, almost, without that maddening sharp-toothed grin on his face. Also, though the blanket was still pulled up around Abi - he had never liked the cold, had always slept wrapped up warmly - it had slipped down on the other side, baring Shuten’s shoulders which were…. muscled in an way that was very appealing, he had to admit. The was also a purplish bite mark against Shuten’s collarbone, which for the most absurd moment made Abi feel a brief, instinctive stab of something almost like _jealousy_ , before the realisation that his own teeth had presumably made that mark fully set in.

He was still getting used to… this. Whatever _this_ was. It wasn’t the first time it had happened - their mutual snapping and teasing turning to sharp kisses and stolen touches when words weren’t enough to relieve the crackling tension in the air between them anymore. There had been a few times now, but before they had been meticulously discrete. Who knew what the damage was this time.

Yet another reason for Abi to wonder - as he always did - whether this time would be the last.

He sighed, lying back on the pillow and staring up through the ceiling as his head ached unpleasantly. Hangovers were not a very great deal different from how he felt in the later stages after using his power, especially when he knew he had overstretched his abilities, clinging on to consciousness for longer than he could really stand. When the paralysis had worn off but he was often left with a pain in his head and pulsing sensitivity behind his eyes. But being accustomed to it didn’t make them any easier to endure.

Still, he thought. All circumstances considered, this was a much better situation than a battlefield. _Probably_. But Shuten’s arm was draped across Abi’s waist under the blankets, and the touch of his sleep-warm skin against Abi’s - _and oh, yes, they were naked under the blankets_ , the realisation hitting anew with another stab of unpleasantly mingled embarrassment and triumph - was surprisingly pleasant. Warm and heavy, and somehow _safe_.

Yet also, it made a frisson of…. _something_ run up and down his spine, as details from last night came filtering back. Sharp dragon’s teeth grazing the soft skin of throats, collarbones, sharper words, kissing each other silent, starting all over again. The rasp of scales against skin as their legs entwined amongst the blankets - not an unpleasant feeling at all, Abi had learned - that suddenly seemed constricting, tangling their bodies together.    

“Hmmm…. wha… what’s going on…”

Abi started a little, despite himself, as Shuten stirred and murmured. Shuten’s voice was slightly huskier than usual as his eyes fluttered open. For a moment several expressions passed through them as they met Abi’s gaze; Abi thought he saw confusion pass to alarm to a momentary tenderness, a raw and almost childlike vulnerability that made Abi’s heart ache. _Just the tail-ends of some dream, perhaps?_ He didn’t have time to determine that for certain though, for within a disappointingly short span of seconds, the teasing smile was back to playing about Shuten’s lips, the momentary peace all but vanished. “Watching me sleep, Seiryuu?”

“Your hair was in my face” said Abi without thinking, then immediately felt like a fool. _Oh no, he could feel himself blushing. How does one stop blushing? And for that matter, how was it possible to be blushing in front of someone you’ve known well for years, when you’ve just woken up in bed with them_ … _again…_

“Oh. Well, for that I’m afraid you only have yourself to blame… if I remember rightly you seemed insistent on untying it last night. You practically ripped the tie out, you wanted so much to touch it. Tell me, Abi-chan, is it a fantasy you’ve had for a while, or…? Ah!”

Abi took a soft swipe at him with a corner of the blanket, ignoring his wounded expression. “You talk too much. How can you even talk so much at this hour?”  

“Oh, poor dear, do you have a hangover…?”

Abi rolled his eyes, turning around so his back was to Shuten. “ _Yes_ , surprisingly enough, and don’t try to tell me you don’t, because I wouldn’t believe it for a second.”  

“As a matter of fact my head does ache… slightly…”    

Abi turned his face into the pillow. _Annoyance, that was surely what he felt. That was easy, that was familiar_. _Even if it wasn’t, let Shuten think so for the moment, until Abi worked it out himself._ “Ugh, your grating voice is hurting my ears…”

Shuten shuffled closer under the blankets, bringing his dragon leg up around Abi’s thigh, his face at the juncture of Abi’s neck and shoulder. On balance, he thought, it was good that Shuten couldn’t see his face, as Abi was sure his his cheeks were blushing dark enough to hide even the bright red markings of the dragon. “What are you going to do about it?”

Abi felt himself blush even deeper. “N-nothing, until I’ve had some water” he said, trying to keep his composure as he got up - the wooden floor was not cold, but not exactly warm either - drawing the blanket behind him. There ensued a brief tussle as Shuten clung onto the other end of the blanket from the bed, stifling laughter as Abi rolled his eyes in exasperation.  

He let go of the blanket, and it fell away to the floor, baring his naked back to the cold air; well, that had silenced Shuten. He picked up the ewer, smiling unconcernedly to himself. “I’ve half a mind to pour cold water all over you.”

“You wouldn’t.”

He turned around, looking over one shoulder. Shuten was gazing at him, his hair an utter disheveled mess, the rumpled blanket tangled up about him and artfully concealing… well, very little from a normal person’s sight, and nothing at all from Abi’s. His dragon leg was propped up - surely a deliberate pose, that exhibitionist - and his almost iridescent scales glimmered very prettily in the sunlight slanting through the shades, Abi thought. He took a long sip of water, keeping eye contact over the rim of the cup. “However do you know that?” Abi refilled the cup, tone guileless. “What if I found it amusing to make you scream?”

Shuten snorted. “Abi, Abi, my dear, I can think of far more enjoyable ways to do that.”

Abi returned to the bed, still holding the cup of water, over Shuten’s head, enjoying watching Shuten’s darting purple eyes follow it. “Hmm? Do elaborate.”

“And you call _me_ a tease” said Shuten, through clenched teeth.

Abi shrugged unconcernedly, letting himself enjoy the reaction. “I just enjoy watching your heart speed up to three times its normal rate.”  

As expected, Shuten shuddered. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you coming out with things like that. Talk about a mood killer.” He grinned, a sharp-toothed smile as Abi placed the cup of water finally in his hands, and he drank, long and deep.

Abi relented, then, taking the cup from Shuten and setting it firmly on the table, letting Shuten pull him back down amidst the glowing warmth of the tangled blankets, the burning heat between their bodies. Well, if they were this far gone already, then they may as well get the most out of it, he remembered thinking, before Shuten’s mouth against his throat temporary banished any such semblance of coherence from his thoughts.

A little while later they lay side by side, not quite touching other than in the dancing warm lights that were senses they had of each other, twining together on some strange plane where the dragon’s blood dictated the dance of their lives, Abi felt sure. That, though, was one of very few things he could not see, and right now there was a much more immediate situation at hand.

“Shuten” said Abi seriously, as he snuggled tentatively closer, Shuten’s hand slipping to the nape of his neck with untold tenderness, calloused fingers carding through his tangled hair. “I feel compelled to tell you…”

Shuten blinked. “What?”

Abi sighed, pointing behind him with a thumb, towards the closed door. “That for some time now, Zeno and Guen and the King have been taking bets on whether we’re sleeping together. They’re a few rooms away outside that door now, hiding behind a chest and giggling like children. Except for Guen of course, I don’t know what he bet, but he looks like he’s severely regretting his choices.”

Shuten laughed, archly. “Gambling is a foolish pastime.”

Abi snorted. “Says the man who tried to coerce me into using my power to help him cheat at tiles, to settle a previous gambling dispute from years before he had even _heard_ of a dragon.”

“…That was once!”

“Really? I remember it more like…. three… four times…” Abi’s head still hurt, and he winced as he sat up in bed. “Stop deflecting. The point is…” he dropped his voice, though there was no reason to. “What are we going to do about the others?” When they had done this before, it had always been with the utmost discretion - _and really, what better two conspirators than the dragon who could see anyone who might be watching or listening in, and the one who could provide them an easy escape?_ \- but now the secret was out; whatever they had been last night, is certainly wasn’t discrete.   Abi didn’t care too much about the opinions of the court, but, he realised, he had to know that the others wouldn’t mind, that they would still be… well, whatever they had been before, the five of them together building a whole new kingdom from the ground up. That was important. Things like…. well, whatever had happened here, those could complicate things. Abi had never, ever wanted complications.

“What do you mean, what will we do about them?” asked Shuten, frowning. “You just said they know already, don’t they? So we don’t even need to worry about telling them!”  

That was so infuriatingly _like_ Shuten to say that Abi nearly laughed. “You know what I mean.”

Shuten’s smile curled his lip, revealing a glint of sharp teeth. “Well, I don’t see the need for anything else. It’s hardly as though we’re about to marry each other, and the others… well, I’m at least relatively certain they at least know what sex is. With the possible exception of the King…. he does seem rather lost on such human matters. I don’t suppose the dragon gods up in heaven discuss these things in too much depth.”

Abi elbowed him affectionately in the ribs. “Oh, hush” he said; but despite Shuten’s lack of a serious answer, he was oddly reassured.  

“But really” said Shuten, drawing Abi close. “I say we just go out there and tell them that they’re weeks late, and that whatever they were betting, it probably isn’t nearly enough. That we feel undervalued.”

Abi laughed, grudgingly, only to be silenced a moment later when Shuten kissed him. When they had kissed the night before it had been hungrier, all teeth catching at lips and tongues, back and forth challenges and competition. This was slower, most lingering but no less heated, and, despite the lingering pain in his head and the dryness in his throat, Abi wanted _more_.  

He supposed they could wait a little longer to go out and face the others.  

It was well into the afternoon by the time they had both dressed again in the fine but now severely rumpled clothes they had worn to the feast the night before, Abi was feeling nervous again. He finished tying the ribbon as neatly as he could, frowning in distaste at the wild state of his hair. The ribbon had been found clinging to the windowsill, having apparently been tossed there last night; it fluttered in a gentle breeze. Lucky, really, that it had not come loose and drifted down into the courtyard below; if it had, he was sure Shuten would have jumped down to fetch it back right there and then, which would of course have been infinitely more mortifying.

Abi glanced at the closed door. Several rooms away, Hiryuu, Hakuryuu and Ouyruu were gathered, likely plotting to variously tease, berate, or, Gods forbid, _congratulate_ them to the end of the world and back, Abi felt sure. He tugged on Shuten’s sleeve. “If you go out that door and then immediately jump out of a window and leave me there on my own” he whispered, into the hollow of Shuten’s throat, while his collar was still undone, “then please know that I can very easily hunt you down anywhere in the palace, the grounds, or, in fact, the whole kingdom of Kouka, and it will give me the greatest of joy to paralyse you to death.”

Shuten paused in doing up his belt, letting out a sharp bark of laughter. “Enticing though that sounds, I wouldn’t dream of missing the looks on their faces.”  

With an exasperated sigh and a glare to hide his smile, Abi turned, took a deep breath and pushed open the door.


End file.
